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Leadership And Innovation In Organizations: A Systematic Review Of Factors That Mediate Or Moderate The Relationship

A leader supports teams and individuals as they turn their creative efforts into innovations (leader as facilitator) and manages the organizations goals and activities aimed at innovation (leader as manager). This review focuses on when and how leadership relates to innovation (i.e., the factors that moderate or mediate the relationship between leadership and innovation). The sample consists of 30 empirical studies in which leadership is treated as the independent variable and innovation as the dependent variable. In addition to reviewing moderating and mediating factors, we identified two factors where the findings are ambiguous. The review proposes three new factors that may mediate or moderate the relationship between leadership and innovation.

Social climate as a mediator between leadership behavior and employee well-being in a cross-cultural perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct effects of empowering and employee-centered leadership on well-being, and the indirect or mediating role of social organizational climate between leadership behavior and well-being in a cross-cultural perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires were distributed in two furniture retail stores in Sweden and two stores in China belonging to the same company. The final sample consisted of 483 participants from the Chinese and 254 participants from the Swedish stores. Findings – The results of the structural equation modeling showed that there was no direct effect between leadership behavior (employee-centered leadership and empowering leadership) and well-being in either the Swedish or the Chinese sample. Further, the findings of the study indicate that social climate mediates the relationship between leadership behavior and employee well-being, but this seems to be culturally contingent. The mediating effect is prevalent in a culture ...

Social climate and job control as mediators between empowering leadership and learning from a cross-cultural perspective

The purpose of this article is to examine the direct effects of empowering leadership on learning and the indirect or mediating role of social climate and job control from a cross-cultural perspective. Questionnaires were distributed to two furniture retail stores in Sweden and two stores in China belonging to the same company. The final sample consisted of 483 participants from the Chinese and 254 participants from the Swedish stores. The results of the structural equation modeling showed that there was a direct relationship between empowering leadership and learning (both in the Chinese and the Swedish sample). The study also showed that social climate had a mediating effect of empowering leadership and learning (both in the Chinese and the Swedish sample). In addition, the result indicated that job control had a mediating effect (Swedish sample). The model explained 38% of the variance in learning among the Chinese sample and 62% in the Swedish. This indicates that the tested factors are highly relevant in the context of learning. Despite some methodological limitations such as the cross-sectional design and problems with acquiescence in responses, the results indicate the complexity of the role of culture in organizational behavior. Managers working in increasingly globalized contexts need to take into consideration that some organizational behaviors gradually become more universal, whereas others remain culturally contingent. This article illustrates the complex relationship between leadership behavior, social climate, job control, and learning in the same corporate culture but in different cultural settings.

Leadership and Innovation: A Cross-cultural Study of Mediating Psychological Processes

How is leadership connected with team member innovation? This cross-cultural study models the psychological processes by which leadership is related to individual innovation. Altogether, 269 R&D team members, 60 team leaders, and 20 department managers in a multi-national automotive company answered our surveys in USA, Sweden, France and India. We measured innovation in two ways. First, innovative outcomes were measured using quantitative indicators (new or improved products, new patent applications, and scientific and other publications). Second, innovative individual behavior was measured using team leaders’ assessments. Leadership (conceptualized by leader-member exchange theory) was positively associated with individual innovation. Creative self-efficacy and personal initiative mediated this relationship to innovative outcomes. We also found that the culturally bound value of conservation was negatively related to individual innovation. We discuss implications for organizations when selecting and lead...

Supporting first-line managers in implementing oral care guidelines in nursing homes

This study investigated first-line managers’ experience of and responses to a concise leadership intervention to facilitate the implementation of oral care clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) in nursing homes. Leadership is known to be an important element in knowledge implementation but little is known as to what supports managers to facilitate the process. By means of a process evaluation with mixed methods, the context and a three-month leadership program was explored, including activities during and in relation to the program, and the effects in terms of oral care CPG implementation plans. While the managers appreciated the intervention and considered improved oral care to be a priority, their implementation plans mainly focused the dissemination of an oral care checklist. The findings suggest that extended implementation interventions engaging both managers and clinical staff are needed, and that a concise intervention does not facilitate first-line managers to adopt behaviors known to facilitate knowledge implementation.

MODELLING THE LINK BETWEEN LEADER–MEMBER EXCHANGE AND INDIVIDUAL INNOVATION IN R&D

This study models individual characteristics, leadership, and organisational support in relationship to individual innovation in highly complex research and development (R&D) settings. The study reports on a survey of 166 R&D team members, 43 team leaders, and 10 department managers in five Swedish industrial organisations. Individual innovation was measured using four indicators (new products, new patent applications, scientific publications, and other publications) and team leaders’ ratings of innovative work behaviour. Individuals’ inclination to take personal initiative predicted individual innovation, while intrinsic motivation and leadership (conceptualised by leader–member exchange (LMX) theory) did not. A mediating effect was found whereby LMX was associated with individual innovation through the personal initiative of team members. Organisational support moderated the relationship between LMX and individual initiative. High organisational support strengthened the relationship.